Jeremy Corbyn unveils priorities on Scotland visit

JEREMY Corbyn put lowering the welfare bill through growth, taxing the rich, public ownership and funding the NHS at the heart of his ten-point plan for government.

Labour Leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn . Picture: Getty

As his campaign for the UK Labour leadership gathered momentum, Mr Corbyn addressed a large crowd at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and set out his left wing vision for the future of the country.

The favourite to succeed Ed Miliband announced his ten key priorities as the Corbyn bandwagon enjoyed the second day of his Scottish tour.

In front of a packed room of around 400 supporters, Mr Corbyn said it was the “function of government to create a fair ­society”.

“Austerity can’t take you to prosperity, you have to grow your way to prosperity,” said Mr Corbyn, whose radical agenda has led to the bookies and the pollsters installing him as favourite in the race against Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall.

Mr Corbyn’s team distributed leaflets outlining his ten-point vision, which was formally launched when Mr Corbyn travelled through to Glasgow for a rally last night.

Titled Standing to Deliver, the leaflet promoted a “new kind of politics – a fairer, kinder Britain based on innovation, decent jobs and decent public services”.

First on his list was “growth not austerity”, a goal which would be achieved by a national investment bank “to help create tomorrow’s jobs and reduce the deficit fairly”.

Mr Corbyn called for fair taxes for all, “let the broadest shoulders bear the biggest burden to balance the books”.

A lower welfare bill would be achieved “through investment and growth, not squeezing the least well-off and cutting child tax credits”.

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Action on climate change; public ownership of railways and the energy sector; decent homes for all; no more illegal wars; a fully-funded NHS; protection at work; equality for all and a life-long national education service made up the remainder of Mr Corbyn’s blueprint for change.

Mr Corbyn also used the second day of his Scottish tour to reject the “smears” of those opposed to his leadership bid, stating he refuses to become drawn into personal attacks. He said people are “totally and absolutely and completely turned off by the politics of celebrity, personality, name calling, abuse and all that kind of behaviour, so I’m not really very bothered about what anybody says about anybody in our campaign, including me”.

“We are not responding, we are not dealing with that level of politics,” he added.

“The only thing that is going to come from us is engagement with ordinary people, policy ideas which I hope are interesting and exciting, and above all they are going to be very credible policy ideas.”